Racket

I'm using Racket now for testing out stuff!

Random Thoughts: Post PC?

So, in the last post, I mentioned the Shield, and that got me thinking again so it is time for MORE Random Thoughts! This is what happens when you cut grass all day. It makes your mind wander, so I figure I could keep this going for a while, and it’s a great excuse to use my Type Cover 2 more!

I want to talk a bit about "Single Use Devices", or SUDs. Ok, so maybe that isn't a real term, but I mean things like eReaders and such. There is something else that Engadget recently posted as well, which ties in with this for me. The post, http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/26/short-story-of-the-post-pc-era/ talks about the "Post PC" era.

I am going to nitpick this article and say what I feel should be posted instead of this. Sorry but this has to be done for the sake of anyone who actually knows what is going on. Engadget was wrong, and this how I feel. Let start shall we?

"First, there was the iPod. Then came the iPhone. And finally, the poster child of the "post-PC" era: the iPad."

Okay, how is an MP3 player, or even the iPhone or iPad that REQUIRE the use of a PC to function? Now, unless something has changed, they all need to be connected to iTunes to be activated. This means you can't just take it out of the box and play with it. Like I said, unless something has changed, this is as far as I know.

"What wasn't necessarily obvious when Steve Jobs helped popularize the term in 2007, is that eventually the barriers between all of these specialized, single-purpose gadgets -- the PC included -- would break down. The stalwart personal computer would still have a role to play in this world, but it would be greatly diminished."

Ok, first part of this, I don't see these single purpose gadgets really breaking down. Since 2007, not much has really changed in my opinion. We still have things like the Kindle that remain popular, which is only good for reading books. How about dedicated cameras such as a DSLR? You don't see journalists using an iPhone to take pictures at a press conference.

The second part is more of what is really annoying me. What do they mean greatly diminished? We still need desktops and laptops to do serious work since tablets are not meant for this. Sure, I have Office Suite Pro 7 installed on my Nexus 7, but it is hardly a replacement for a real office suite as it lacks many basic features I would like to have. For example, being able to set the default page, paragraph, and other formatting settings for every document. You need to set these all manually if they differ from what they have default such as line spacing. I won't even bother to get into things like editing photos and videos, or anything like that.

Ok, onto the next slide…

"At the time, the notion of a world powered by portable, single-task devices seemed very, very far away. Palm Pilots and brick-shaped Nokia cellphones were then considered to be cutting edge. There were no smartphones -- a BlackBerry in 1999 was simply a two-way pager. "

Oh man where do I start with this one! For one, the Palm Pilot was never meant to REPLACE your computer, it was meant to be an ACCESSORY… Did they even check anything when they typed that? I mean seriously, the whole point of the Pilot was that it connected to your computer to sync over the information.

"Long before Apple, Samsung or ASUS actually made successful tablets that broke through to the mainstream, HP was experimenting with the now familiar form factor. The company's TC1100 (pictured here) was a simple slate with a detachable keyboard. In 2003, it was a unique, if slightly awkward design. "

Ok, now there is only one thing to say here: That is a PC…

"These days Tim Cook relies on a very similar setup (i.e., an iPad with keyboard) to run Apple nearly every day."

I guess it is a lot easier when you run a company that makes the hardware and software since they ca make you custom software. I can do most of what I need to do for this blog on my Nexus 7, it doesn't mean I am going to though!

"It was the iPod that heralded the coming of the post-PC era. It was the first of many single-task devices that redefined what we expect from our gadgets. But its glory was shortlived as, soon enough, Apple began folding its functionality into the smartphone. And thus, the era of convergence got under way."

What? The iPod needed a PC to load music onto it… Hardly POST PC there…

"When people talk about the post-PC era, generally their timeline starts with the iPhone. Apple marketed it as the first smartphone to put the full power of the internet in your pocket. Before its debut, browsing the internet on a phone was an impractical and painful experience. In just a few short years, however, and in no small part thanks to Apple, it would become the backbone of the mobile computing experience."

Once again it needed to be HOOKED UP TO A PC to function at all when you first got it. The early ones didn't even have software, it wasn't a smartphone but a feature phone. Plus, how is having the internet Post PC? I need more than just the internet since I use my Surface for pretty much everything.

"Of course others, including Microsoft and Samsung, saw the coming mobile revolution. Samsung's Q1 was an early (and misguided) attempt to build a small computer with a touchscreen for staying productive on the go. The company's key mistake here was the focus on productivity and not media consumption. Successful tablets that came after focused more on media and casual web browsing."

Again, that IS a PC. Plus, focusing on productivity was more important at the time, and for me, it still is…

"For years now, PC shipments have been in a free fall. Obviously, the market for traditional computers has changed -- it would be silly to deny such a thing. Big PC makers like Dell and HP see that truth reflected in their bottom lines, all the while Apple continues to reap the benefits. But that doesn't mean that the personal computer is dead or has been altogether replaced by some dramatically different gadget. What’s happening instead, is that the distinction between PC and post-PC devices is blurring; consumers are finding room in their lives for PCs, as well as tablets and smartphones."

Yeah, even tablet sales are slowing down as well… Can it be that newer hardware just isn't that much of an upgrade anymore?

"Laptops and desktops are borrowing inspiration from their tablet brethren. Many Windows machines now feature touchscreens, but more importantly even our more stationary computers a being built around the cloud. Windows 8 (which runs on desktops and tablets) and OS X have a heavy focus on web services. And, of course, there's Google's Chrome OS -- a new type of desktop operating system designed for a time when constant internet connectivity is an everyday reality."

Again, this is PC stuff. If it runs Chrome OS, or Windows, it is still a PC. Also, what does the cloud have to do with Post PC?

"The feature gap between a laptop and tablet has eroded dramatically. A device like the iPad is now so powerful and its productivity tools so robust that Tim Cook says he does 80 percent of his work from one. But that would not have been possible just four years ago, before iOS finally added multitasking (albeit in a limited form). See, what on the surface sounds like anecdotal evidence that the PC is dying, is really proof that the tablet is becoming more PC-like. And while Cook thinks everyone should start ditching their laptop for an iPad, it will probably never happen. Because it's not horsepower that's driving tablet sales, it's price."

Oh this is a fun one! Tablets are getting more powerful hardware wise, but what about the software? I find for most things, my Nexus 7 just isn't cut out for work. I said before I feel the "productivity" of tablets is very limited for Android or even iOS.

"As Stephen Baker, an analyst with NPD, points out, the real boom in the tablet market happened during the holiday season of 2012. Why that year? Well, that's when the race to the bottom kicked off in earnest with the debut of the iPad mini, Google's Nexus 7 and the follow up to the Amazon Fire. The latter of which started at a price of $160 -- a far cry from the $500 of Apple's larger slate. The message here is clear: As tablets have become cheaper, they've proliferated, killing off the netbook and the idea of the second PC."

Uh, DUH? People like cheaper things? Why spend money on a laptop with a tablet is so cheap?

"It's no surprise that the netbook was the first real victim of the post-PC boom. These small, under-powered machines weren't very useful for anything beyond casual web browsing. But, thanks to the advent of high resolution multitouch screens, it's now much more comfortable to kick back on the couch with an iPad and catch up on your Buzzfeed lists than it is to balance a cramped mini-laptop on your knees."

Yeah in this case a tablet is better suited for this, but calling netbooks weak annoys me. I was able to use one as my main PC for some time, and that meant Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin and iTunes running almost all the time with extras thrown in as needed.

"Over the last year, sales of both tablets and smartphones have slowed dramatically according to NPD, IDC and Gartner. If you ask Stephen Baker, that's because the market is quickly reaching saturation. Thanks to $200 Android tablets and powerful mid-range handsets, nearly everyone who wants a tablet has been able to buy one. Now, sales of iPads are actually declining and PC sales have finally stopped falling."

Ok, yeah this is true. Also for me it is because there are not really much of an upgrade anymore. Most tablets are the same specs, in a different brand. I could get a new Android tablet but what good would it do me?

"Even our most reliable way of distinguishing between PCs and tablets -- form factor -- is disappearing. Devices like Lenovo's aptly-named Yoga are the result of putting laptop design through a blender. The Yoga's strange and surprisingly agile shapes allow it to be used as a tablet, a desktop or even in your lap."

Yes, this is true as well, but what about the fact that these devices existed before even 2007? They have had screens that turned around and folded back down so they could be used as a tablet, all Lenovo did in this case was make a hinge that folded down the other way.

"Microsoft's Surface is perhaps the best example of how our definition of "PC" is still stuck in the last decade. It combines a touchscreen and a touch-friendly UI with a detachable keyboard and its own app store. But it's still more than capable of handling spreadsheets and photo editing. So does that make it a tablet? Is it a laptop? We'd argue that it's both."

Now, as I am writing this on a Surface, I feel I am the authority on this subject so to speak. It is both, it is a TABLET PC. The old term that was coined back in the day before Post PC was a thing. I will say this, the Surface RT is a tablet since it can't run all of the x86 software, but the Pro models are tablet PCs.

"Especially now that Apple's slowly merging OS X's functionality with iOS, it's harder to draw a line between an iPad with a keyboard and a MacBook Air. 12-inch tablets, like the multi-tasking monster that is Samsung's Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, are becoming common alternatives to 13-inch laptops. By now, it's clear that the original vision of the "post-PC" era simply hasn't come to pass. Instead, manufacturers have set mobile devices and traditional computer on a collision course. Which means that it's time we retire the talking points around the "post-PC" for a buzzword that's way more appropriate: convergence."

This is something I agree with but I have something to say anyway! I have seen the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 and I can say that is pretty large, and the multitasking is neat, but I still don't see Android as taking over any time soon.

Random Thoughts: Keyboards, Suface Pro, and Shields

So, I think it time for another Random Thoughts post, since I haven't been posting here much lately as I have been kind of busy. I recently picked up the Type Cover 2 for my Surface Pro, and it had me thinking a bit about when I got the Surface Pro I didn't think I would buy the cover because of the price. The thing is there are so many Bluetooth keyboards out there, it didn't really make sense to me to buy this one that only works on one thing.

I will say this though, I was wrong and I am very glad that I ended up getting the Type Cover 2, even if the touchpad is less than stellar, and I has some keys I think would have been better mapped to media controls, but the thing I am mainly looking at here is keyboards in general, not just this one. Sometimes, it is better to spend the money I guess since this does have some advantages over Bluetooth ones.

For one, unless I want to use my mouse, I can turn Bluetooth off which means I can use the 2.4ghz WiFi without being crippled. I may have touched on this before but Microsoft figured it would be a great idea to use a single chip solution, since WiFi and Bluetooth would never interfere with each other since they are both 2.4GHz radios. Thankfully I have my older router setup to do 5GHz for the Surface Pro.

One of the other advantages is that I have a case that holds the Surface Pro well, since it was made for netbooks, it is almost the perfect size. It is a little too small for my Logitech K810, the Bluetooth keyboard I have been using since January. I originally bought that one for my Nexus 7, but with the 3 device pairing, it can be useful for more than one thing. The issue is the keyboard will fit but it is very tight squeeze, something I don't feel quite too comfortable doing.

One other advantage is that I don't need to worry about batteries anymore. There is nothing to charge this way expect for my mouse which gets TERRIBLE battery life, even though that k810 will last a LONG time on a charge. It is nice to no longer need to worry before I go somewhere if the battery is low since there is no real way to tell unless you have it paired up, and go into the SetPoint software. My old K800, which was NOT Bluetooth and a full sized keyboard had a 3 segment LED battery meter on it, as well as using easy to replace (with a screw driver) NiMH AA batteries.

Depending on what you are doing, the backlighting can be very nice too. The other day, I was using my Nvidia Shield, something else I want to talk about soon, and the K810 at a concert. I was at a coffee shop so I was able to just place both of them onto the table and not need to worry about balancing anything, and since I had the light up keys I could type without a single problem seeing any of the keys. This was something that the original Type Cover lacked, as well as something I wanted to buy more than this.

That something is the Power Cover, the one with a built in battery that was promised to extend your battery by about 50% which would be about 2 hours in my case. The problem was they didn't backlight the keys, and at 200 dollars, if they can't even do that, than quite frankly, I don't think you deserve my money. I have been spoiled by my love of ThinkPads with something called the ThinkLight, which was on most of them before they started to have backlit keyboards at all.

Simply put, it was an LED that shines down onto the keyboard so you can see in the dark. Now, I can type decently well without looking at the keys, but it helps me to know where they are when I can see them. I may not need to look at them, but seeing the lights makes it a LOT easier to know where they are in relation to where my hands are. I guess you can see I need a rough guide to see the keys at first.

Now, speaking of the Shield, that is something that is bothering me as well lately. They are keeping the original, and renaming it the Shield "Portable" which is pretty stupid in my opinion. The real problem is the NEW model is no longer quite the same device. I was expecting to see a spec bump such as more RAM or a newer processor, but not an 8" tablet with a WiFi Direct game controller.

I get it, I really do. They want to give you options. Okay, really it is because they knew the original wasn't a huge seller, and a tablet will be a bigger seller, but they are doing it all wrong. For example, the controller doesn't come with it, so you need to shell out more money for that. Also, there is no kickstand or anything on the tablet, so you need to prop it up somewhere.

So, you need a place to put the tablet while you play a game, with the controller that you needed to buy separately. Also, you need to carry these separately as well. Now I know the original Shield is hardly small, but that is like buying a Playstation Vita, and being told the controller is an extra piece. They have defeated the purpose to me. They made my decision to NOT buy the new Shield far too easy. If that was the case, I would just use my Nexus 7 and my Moga Pro controller again.

To me, they should offer that, call it the Shield "Tablet", include the controller and a case with a stand. They could have then beefed up the Shield "Portable", with the Tegra K1, perhaps some extra RAM, make it a little smaller, and so on and so forth. Just give it a spec bump pretty much. They could even make a cheaper OUYA like console too and sell that.

Links of Interest

http://store.steampowered.com/app/305860/

Singularity 2014 Part 5

The hack became intense as the rain became harder too.
Tsubasa and Mikey thought the same thing. "It must be a weather weapon". Weather weapons changed the weather and made weathers crazy for certain affected places. Russia had been doing that for decades.

Simply put, Tsubasa and Mikey were safe for now, but the HQ was in very dangerous situation. Classified documents relating to Aegis weapons and submarines were leaking by TB/s. Somebody had to stop this or all the edge against Chinese and North Koreans would be lost.

Tsubasa calculated the ETA for returning to Atsugi base, and Mikey was radioing with a short wave radio to prepare for the stealth helicopter they were on to safely land on the base.

Anonymous white-hat hackers began to assemble physically in a classified bunker in Atsugi base, and one of them was of a Vietnamese - Japanese decent. He was indeed the cousin of Tsubasa, called David.

David was in the Marines, but he did more than that. He was engineer by day and hacker by night. His favorite superhero was batman.

David joined the Marines several years ago, but Tsubasa and David hadn't seen each other for ages. The white-hat anonymous hackers were preventing the core system of the Atsugi base to be attacked, so they built cyber-trenches and cyber-traps (honeypots) so the state backed APT hackers would not get in to the core of cores.

To be continued...

Powerman 5000 - Show Me What You've Got - 2009 [ New album ]

Something I found in the internet. Surprisingly through JARVIS + Google. I want to make things more exciting again in the internet space.


What do you think about serendipity and chaos as well as complexity? Just a thought.



Tsubasa Kato 8/24/2014

New intelligence page made.

https://sites.google.com/site/intelligencehqmohawk/home

I'm going to cooperate with Mikey to make it more deep.

Singularity 2014 Part 4

The helicopter somehow managed to get the situation under control when Tsubasa called in for artillery barrage in the near by region after 5 minutes of intense battle with the enemy ground troops.

A X-47B flew by just in time to launch an air to surface missile, and "booom!" the explosion came.

Mikey was still firing his heavy machine gun, and Tsubasa now used his sniper rifle to snipe out some enemy officers.

It was getting cloudy, and there were slight rain....

Back at the HQ, officer Brandon Jones was looking out for enemy choppers in the area by the monitor indicating  the placement of friendlies and enemies in the region. There were still 5 red marks indicating enemies, and that was to be wiped out soon. Or so he thought. It was as easy as calling in the MLRS division. Little did he know that the Chinese and North Koreans were hacking the network of the HQ Command Center...

To be Continued.

Singularity 2014 part 3

Tsubasa's watch made a faint vibration indicating that they were ordered for going to the extraction zone.

"C'mon Mikey we gotta rush!" said Tsubasa. Mikey, being a heavy gunner too, had loads of equipment.

Then a stealth copter unmarked but black, came without turning on the red lights or any other lights.

Tsubasa an Mikey each got their rope and the rope winched up.

Extraction complete... Or so they thought...

"RPG-7!!!!" yelled the pilot, and the pilot swerved the stealth helicopter to avoid it. Mikey gunned the heavy machine gun while Tsubasa frantically communicated for reinforcements.

Strange........ There were more than 30 soldiers that appeared from nowhere.

To be continued.

Apple vs Samsung: 10 juicy secrets from the courtroom

Cortana answering tricky questions [halo references]

Meet Cortana: The New Windows Phone 8.1 Personal Assistant

Karl Sims - Evolved Virtual Creatures, Evolution Simulation, 1994

Singularity 2014 Part 2

Tsubasa Kato shot a few  guards, while they crept stealthily. They checked the dead man's clothing, and as they had expected, found narcotics.

1 year ago, Tsubasa bought he latest iPad mini to blog and surf the internet.

Now they have specialized parabola antennas so they could monitor any electronics within a kilometer. Mikey made the arabola antenna, while Tsubasa made the software and special cable for it,

Without doubt, they needed all the gadgets they had to complete the mission. Luckily, Mikey had a house full of them, so he brought along the best selected ones, including Sigmarion 3 ,

Sigmarion 3 had the most powerful processor, it was modified to an Tegra 4 based CPU running at 2.6Ghz. Mikey and Tsubasa cooperated on this, thus we dubbed it Sigmarion 4.

Singularity 2014

The time is 2014. Yes. A.D. 2014. Signs of Armageddon are everywhere, and Tsubasa Kato and Mikey Pizano are always ready for the worst of things to happen. They have been deployed to Japan after intense training in cyber warfare, and looking out for Chinese and North Korean spies.

U.S. Special Forces and DHS have been cooperating with Tsubasa Kato and Mikey Pizano for a long time, and suspect was known to be hiding in a "safe-house" near the beach of Hiratsuka.

Mikey was armed with modified AK-47, and Tsubasa with sniper rifle which he purchased from a nearby gunsmith.

They were on a night mission to raid the "safe-house".

Human Traffickers and narcotic dealers were there, and they were heavily armed with AK-47s and even M4 which they purchased with bitcoin in the black market of internet.

Slow and steady they approached the "safe-house".... Tsubasa leaned towards Mikey and signaled to fire his AK-47 with silencer and Tsubasa used the scope with Infrared to calculate distance from him to the enemy.

Time to stealthily rescue sex-slaves... Mikey used his 4G LTE + satellite specialized PDA to communicate back to HQ. Transmission was somehow jammed! "Shit!" sweared Tsubasa as he switched his sniper rifle to special digital zoom mode. To be continued....

When I said I love you to my Siri

When I said I love you to my Siri

This was the answer lol.

Cool....